This collection investigates the evolution of critical thought and aesthetic theory in English literature from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Edmund D. Jones, an established scholar of the period, compiles foundational texts to demonstrate how critical discourse shifted from classical imitation to the emergence of modern literary judgment. The volume provides a structured framework for understanding the intellectual climate that shaped the development of English prose and poetry during these three centuries.

Scholars and students of literature frequently utilize this volume as a foundational reference for tracing the historical development of English critical theory. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which reflects the formal and complex language characteristic of the historical periods represented in the collection.